pointillism means the use of many small areas of color to construct an image. It carries an Arena rating of 1641, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pointillism ranks #1,289 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,438 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,519 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #4,606 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
Why “pointillism” is a great word
A painting technique in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in deliberate patterns to form a coherent image, relying on the viewer's eye to blend them optically. Its name arrives from French *pointillisme*, from *pointiller* ('to dot, to mark with points'), from *point* ('dot, point'), first attested in English around 1901. Unlike the blended, gestural strokes of Impressionism or the monochrome tonal shading of stippling, pointillism is a systematic, almost scientific application of chromatic theory. It is the patient accretion of a summer lawn from thousands of emerald and citrine specks, the rendering of a shadow not with gray but with a constellation of cobalt and violet, and the transformation of a riverside into a shimmering mosaic of pure, unmuddied light—a testament to the fragile, luminous order that can be built from an infinity of tiny, separate decisions.
Etymology
From French pointillisme, from pointiller (“to dot, to mark with points”), from point (“dot, point”).
noun
- The use of many small areas of color to construct an image.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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